


Lynx

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 18:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15419316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Maya has had one heck of a morning.





	Lynx

The peaceful quiet of a morning at Moorland stables was suddenly broken by the sound of a smash. Maya stared, aghast, at the shattered glass that now littered the floor of the stable. The horses in the stalls panicked, one breaking free before the other two followed, and Maya was too busy jumping out of the way to check if any of them stepped in glass. They were probably too panicked to feel it, anyway, but Maya just hoped that they wouldn't run too far away.

But there was one horse who didn't run. One who merely stood in front of the shattered bowl, ears down, eyes huge as if it say that he didn't do it. Maya had never seen puppy eyes on a horse before. Nevertheless, it didn't work.

"LYNX!" Maya screamed, tears in her eyes as the reality of what had happened came crashing down on her. She growled, balling her hands into fists, but she wouldn't punch him. Punching a horse was just wrong, no matter how naughty he was. "You stupid, stupid horse!"

Jenna came running, of course, alarmed by the sound while the Bobcatz fretted over trying to catch the escaped horses without breaking their nails.

"Maya, what's happened?" asked Jenna, staring in dismay at all of the glass.

"It's stupid Lynx," said Maya, a few tears falling as she pointed angrily at the innocent-looking connemara. "I just brought him in here to meet the other horses, like you said, but then he started to walk away so I had to put the glass bowl down to grab him, and then he must've done something because it just broke!"

"Oh, Maya, it's okay," Jenna cooed, wrapping her arms around the younger girl. Maya tried not to cry too much.

"No, it's not," said Maya, trembling. "I brought the bowl in to show you because you said you wanted to see it, and now I can't ever do that because it's in a thousand pieces, and we have to sweep out the stables and carefully clean the stableyard and I've just made so much more work and I was trying to do something nice and-"

"Shh, Maya, sweetie, it's okay, things happen," said Jenna, rubbing Maya's back while the girl cried in her arms. "But the important thing is that you're okay, and none of the horses seem badly injured. And luckily, it was a quiet morning anyway, so there were only a few horses here to escape." Maya sniffed, trying to catch her breath.

"I-I guess," said Maya. "I was just trying to do something nice, but it all went wrong. I guess I really am unfortunate." She kicked at the ground glumly, causing a small piece of glass to skid across the ground. She bent to pick it up, but Jenna caught her hand, stopping her.

"Let's put on some gloves before handling the broken glass, okay?" said Jenna. Maya nodded, ashamed at having forgotten something so simple. She'd always thought that her family was cursed, especially after everything that had happened with GED, and this just proved it.

"I'm so sorry, Jenna," said Maya, guilt twisting like a knife in her heart as Jenna retrieved two pairs of gloves from the main house. "I messed it all up."

"It's okay, it was an accident, they happen sometimes," said Jenna. "This isn't your fault, Maya, you have to believe me." Maya couldn't meet Jenna's eyes, though.

Glumly, Maya bent down and began to carefully pick up the larger pieces of glass, dropping them carefully into a dustpan which she'd then empty into a garbage bin. The whole time, guilt ate away at her while Lynx just stood there calmly, watching.

"Lynx is my responsibility," said Maya, getting to her feet and carefully checking her jeans for glass fragments. "So it is my fault. Stupid horse." She glared at him, and Lynx lifted his tail. Maya groaned. Great, more mess to clean up.

"Hey," said a voice that had half the girls in the stableyard swooning. "What's going on here? I heard a crash."

"Oh, hi, Josh," said Jenna, giving him a friendly smile. "It's alright, just a little accident involving a naughty horse and a glass bowl."

"I don't know if he stepped on it or kicked it," said Maya. "But he broke it. After I put it on the floor in the first place." She sighed.

"Cheeky fella, huh?" said Josh, standing in front of Lynx and looking up at him. Lynx cocked his head to one side, his mane flopping over one eye.

"I'll say," said Maya. "Maybe my cousin sent him to me because she couldn't handle him."

"Well, she sent him to the right place," said Josh, walking over to the tack room and grabbing a bridle. He carried it over to Lynx, who eyed it warily. Lynx sniffed the bridle, then snorted, rearing up and turning away. "Oh, you are a cheeky one, aren't you?"

"He ruined everything," said Maya, hurt that Josh was trying to reason with this beast. "I hate him."

"I'll take him off your hands," said Josh, slowly approaching Lynx with the bridle. He managed to slip it on by distracting Lynx with sugar, and Lynx whinnied and backed away when he realised that he'd been had. Lynx shook his head, snorting, but the bridle was on and the bit was in. He was trapped. Lynx stared at Josh, and if Maya didn't know better, she'd swear that he was glaring. Maya glared right back at him, sticking her tongue out and thumbing her nose.

"Good luck," said Maya. "Don't be surprised if he does your head in." Josh chuckled, rubbing the horse's neck.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be just fine," said Josh. "I'm a patient man, after all." Maya smiled. Though she may not be crushing on him like half the stable (her crushes were reserved for the fairer sex, and one magical one in particular), she could definitely see why people liked him. He was so kind, so generous, so... amazing. He'd make the perfect boyfriend for someone one day, should he ever choose to do that. He was already breaking plenty of hearts.

After cleaning up the stable, rounding up the horses, and treating one poor horse's poor hoof, Maya left the stableyard, still feeling miserable and angry at Lynx. He was like a trickster in horse form, but worse than that. Her cousin had tried to warn her that Lnx was a handful, but had she listened? Noo. Maya stomped her feet slightly as she walked, ignoring the looks that some of the Bobcatz gave her. Of course they didn't try to comfort her, they just liked her because she was a mythic Dew, rumoured to be cursed or something. Though, come to think of it, they didn't know that. Maybe they only liked her because they wanted to find out all of her secrets. But Maya would never tell. Her secrets were hers to keep.

"Hey, Josh," said Maya, finally arriving at the pole bending course. She noticed, to her slight alarm, that Lynx was nowhere to be seen. "Where's the troublemaker?"

"Over at Conrad's, getting shod," said Josh. "You said that he needed to have that done, right?"

"Oh yeah," said Maya. In all of the kerfuffle of that morning, it had completely slipped her mind. "Thanks for remembering. Glad one of us has a good memory."

"You're welcome," said Josh, giving her a friendly smile. He hauled himself up into the front of his wagon, patting the seat beside him. "Take a seat."

"Alright," said Maya, pulling herself up beside him. She really hoped that- nope, too late, there was already at least one Bobcat shooting her filthy looks for daring to sit next to Josh. Great. Rumours on top of a crappy morning, just what she needed. She'd give anything to be out doing Soul Rider things with Alex. Maya rested her head in her hands, pouting.

"Still glum over this morning?" asked Josh, handing Maya a warm mug of something. Maya took it in her hands, a fresh cut stinging. Of course she'd managed to cut herself on a piece of glass, and just when she'd thought that all of the glass was cleaned up. They needed to order new hay now, all because of her.

"Yeah," said Maya, nodding. "I just feel so bad. Jenna really wanted to see that glass bowl in person, and now she never will." Tears welled in her eyes. "It was my mum's good salad bowl, too."

"Oh no," said Josh, rubbing her back. "I'm so sorry that happened to you, Maya."

"Well, I don't know what I expected," said Maya, shrugging. "Considering my family name."

"Hey, now," said Josh, nudging her to get her to look at him. His eyes were so earnest. "You know that curse is only made up, right? Your family isn't cursed, they were just wrongly targeted by that evil corporation for their land. You shouldn't need to feel ashamed of what you have, you had a beautiful farm and they just swooped in and took it."

"Yeah, because it was too beautiful," said Maya. "They wouldn't have wanted an old dump. After all, they haven't even looked at the place we're living now."

"What they did, what happened to your family, it was wrong, Maya," said Josh. "And it's happened to dozens of other families. It almost happened right here."

"I know," said Maya, staring down into her... well, whatever it was that Josh had given her. Maybe it was tea, it certainly looked milky. But she took a sip and was surprised to taste hot cocoa. She smiled. But then, as his words sank in, she frowned again. "Now I just feel bad for being miserable."

"You shouldn't," said Josh. "Feel bad about it, I mean. What happened to your family was terrible, I can't even imagine it. To just lose your farm so suddenly..."

"But it wasn't sudden," said Maya, anger rising up to eclipse the sadness as she remembered. "First our crops started failing, then our animals started dying, even the dog. And then I got sick and... and mum took me into Jarlaheim to be treated. And Ms Drake was there. And she..." Sadness slammed into her again and Maya set her mug aside, crying in earnest now. "She said that her scientists had done some tests on our land and water, and that there were bad chemicals in it. They tested me, too, and found the same chemicals. And then- then Ms Drake told my mum that she'd buy the farm so I could be treated. Mum agreed because the doctors said that I was really sick."

"Oh, Maya," said Josh, wrapping his arms around her in a comforting hug. Maya shook, crying all over again at the memories of the sickness and the countless doctor visits and how much her parents had cried and even fought. They'd known, even then, that the chemicals, the sickness, all of it had been brought about by GED in an attempt to steal their land. But there had been nothing that they could do about it- without the costly treatment, Maya would have died, and they could only get enough money by selling the farm. At least, in that short timespan.

"See? It is my fault," said Maya, looking up at him through teary eyes. "If I hadn't gotten sick, none of this would've happened."

"It also wouldn't have happened if GED hadn't used such dirty, underhanded tactics." said Josh. "It's not your fault that you got sick, Maya, you didn't know that the water was poisoned. You didn't know what they were doing."

"I should've guessed," said Maya.

"Okay, and then what? Would you have bought water from somewhere else? And who's to say that it wasn't also in the land itself?" said Josh. Maya shook her head.

"It's so messed up," said Maya.

"I know," said Josh, pulling her into a hug. "But you're safe here now. We're a real family, here at Moorland." Maya sniffed, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.

"Thank you," said Maya. "For looking after Lynx and... for listening." She looked up at him, at his smiling face. "You're such a good friend."

"That's what friends are for," said Josh. "Now, drink your hot cocoa. I think you need it." Maya grinned, knowing that, again, he was right. Josh was always full of good wisdom, he just didn't get to dispense much of it.


End file.
